Describe your most consistent challenge in your learning this semester? What was your most difficult class? What made it so hard? What learning strategies did you use try to be successful?
My most consistent challenge in my learning this semester has been the fact that, in all of my classes, my learning now comes from multiple resources and perspectives, whereas in high school I learned only from my teacher and the books or text books the teacher provided. More frequently now than ever I am pushed to explore new databases because much of my learning in college is individual. Since we are responsible for much of our own learning, professors have more time to show us different online resources to use, and the means to send us these resources through Sakai. I am a person of habit and a very visual and hands on type of learner, so I’ve always loved and worked best when I’m given a book or reading and told to learn it or memorize it. Instead, we’re now given concepts and topics by our professors, which we are expected to learn about to the best of our abilities. This threw me off at first because I’ve never had to be so responsible for my own learning and my learning has also never mattered as much as it does now; however, I am now pretty comfortable with this style and it allows me to learn the way I want to and generally at my own pace and on my own time. To try to be successful with this new sense of educational responsibility, I have become more organized. I keep track of everything I have to do, along with the resources I know of to help me accomplish it. College seems like a time when I have to use everything I’ve already learned and combine it with the new things I’m learning to form a knowledge base that I can then take on to the next classes with me, and so on.
Describe at least one strategy that YOU developed or adopted this semester to augment how you learn. This could be a study strategy that you have adapted, a way to organize your research, or some other way of collecting or organizing new knowledge for writing, planning, etc. Did your PKB contribute to this strategy? If so, explain how.
This semester I have gotten into the habit of finding and bookmarking articles and websites I know will help me learn and stay organized. I have made folders on my computer of different types of websites and I use this whenever I’m stuck on an idea or assignment. Additionally, as well as using my planner I make a note in my app “Stickies” on my laptop with every class on it and everything I know of that has to be done at some point for each and it’s really satisfying to be able to clear things from that list. I have the folders of websites organized under topics such as “Environment,” “Education,” “Math,” “Art,” and “URI.” My Evernote PKB hasn’t really contributed to this just because it’s my own little makeshift knowledge base that I find much more aesthetically and organizationally pleasing than Evernote. I can now keep these folders and add to them throughout my time here at URI and hopefully beyond, and I can create new ones as well.
If you decided not use Evernote this semester, explain why not. Describe what you have chosen to do instead in terms of organizing your notes in your courses, conducting research, etc.
I decided not to use Evernote this semester because I wasn’t completely comfortable with it or storing information in it. I am more comfortable organizing information and data completely my own way, so instead I used my aforementioned method of collecting websites and articles in different folders on my laptop’s desktop. Evernote is definitely an awesome application and many people love it, but I don’t like changing things about my daily routine or the way I learn and study and gather information, so I stuck to what I’m comfortable with for this semester. With such a big transition as to where I live and what I’m learning, I needed to keep the comfort of having my own ways of studying and organizing that I’ve always used.
PKB Reflection
Describe your most consistent challenge in your learning this semester? What was your most difficult class? What made it so hard? What learning strategies did you use try to be successful?
My most consistent challenge in my learning this semester has been the fact that, in all of my classes, my learning now comes from multiple resources and perspectives, whereas in high school I learned only from my teacher and the books or text books the teacher provided. More frequently now than ever I am pushed to explore new databases because much of my learning in college is individual. Since we are responsible for much of our own learning, professors have more time to show us different online resources to use, and the means to send us these resources through Sakai. I am a person of habit and a very visual and hands on type of learner, so I’ve always loved and worked best when I’m given a book or reading and told to learn it or memorize it. Instead, we’re now given concepts and topics by our professors, which we are expected to learn about to the best of our abilities. This threw me off at first because I’ve never had to be so responsible for my own learning and my learning has also never mattered as much as it does now; however, I am now pretty comfortable with this style and it allows me to learn the way I want to and generally at my own pace and on my own time. To try to be successful with this new sense of educational responsibility, I have become more organized. I keep track of everything I have to do, along with the resources I know of to help me accomplish it. College seems like a time when I have to use everything I’ve already learned and combine it with the new things I’m learning to form a knowledge base that I can then take on to the next classes with me, and so on.
Describe at least one strategy that YOU developed or adopted this semester to augment how you learn. This could be a study strategy that you have adapted, a way to organize your research, or some other way of collecting or organizing new knowledge for writing, planning, etc. Did your PKB contribute to this strategy? If so, explain how.
This semester I have gotten into the habit of finding and bookmarking articles and websites I know will help me learn and stay organized. I have made folders on my computer of different types of websites and I use this whenever I’m stuck on an idea or assignment. Additionally, as well as using my planner I make a note in my app “Stickies” on my laptop with every class on it and everything I know of that has to be done at some point for each and it’s really satisfying to be able to clear things from that list. I have the folders of websites organized under topics such as “Environment,” “Education,” “Math,” “Art,” and “URI.” My Evernote PKB hasn’t really contributed to this just because it’s my own little makeshift knowledge base that I find much more aesthetically and organizationally pleasing than Evernote. I can now keep these folders and add to them throughout my time here at URI and hopefully beyond, and I can create new ones as well.
If you decided not use Evernote this semester, explain why not. Describe what you have chosen to do instead in terms of organizing your notes in your courses, conducting research, etc.
I decided not to use Evernote this semester because I wasn’t completely comfortable with it or storing information in it. I am more comfortable organizing information and data completely my own way, so instead I used my aforementioned method of collecting websites and articles in different folders on my laptop’s desktop. Evernote is definitely an awesome application and many people love it, but I don’t like changing things about my daily routine or the way I learn and study and gather information, so I stuck to what I’m comfortable with for this semester. With such a big transition as to where I live and what I’m learning, I needed to keep the comfort of having my own ways of studying and organizing that I’ve always used.